Hubert Roestenburg

Life and Philosophy

Hubert Roestenburg was born in Amsterdam in 1935. There have been painters in his family for over 300 years. They were all landscape painters. Hubert’s father was famous for his church paintings in the province of Brabant when the Roman Catholic Church was at the height of its glory.

Hubert went to Amsterdam University to study psychology. After 5 years he left to join the Royal Academy of Arts where he spent 2 years working on painting techniques. This was followed by a further year at the academy of arts in Antwerp, Belgium.

For the next 10 years he worked towards a single goal: that of acquiring the means to lead a free and independent life. With his family he moved to England, Switzerland, Portugal, Brittany France, Belgium and Holland, living and working in each country.

Hubert believes in the individual. To think and act in absolute freedom is paramount. His struggle for perfect freedom cannot be separated from his work as a painter: ‘Art can only be an expression of freedom’. Of his paintings he says: ‘I do not control painting, painting controls me. A painting is a feeling which exists within a bow of tension. What I express on the canvas is the deepest within me. Painting is a mystery to me for which I do not have an explanation.

Click images to enlarge and to learn more about each individual painting